Public Discourse Tag

Sometime in March 2016, Ghulam Nabi Azad extracted a vile variant of the perversion that goes by the name of public discourse in India: secularism. Since his predecessors had already set the path, he merely took it to another extreme by equating the RSS with the ISIS. As has been the norm for about five decades, the RSS and other folks sympathetic to Hindu causes lashed out against his perfidy. Although things are changing for the better with powerful, alternative and new voices challenging and countering the Azads of theRead More

Ramachandra Guha never learns, does he? There’s a limit to how many times his bluff has been called. Or is there? Wait…there is a limit to the number of times his bluff has been called but given his record, his capacity to bluff is infinite. When I searched for “Ramachandra Guha” on my blog, it returned forty nine results. The piece you’re now reading happens to be the fiftieth time I’ve called Guha’s bluff. And this is just by me, one individual. Do your own research on the number ofRead More

My dictum that the Indian English media is a whore with none of the ethics of a whore has been proven correct again. And so the latest proof of its venal whoredom happens to be a barefaced lie, a shameless hoax, which in the pre-Internet era would’ve gone unnoticed. Perchance that it was noticed, its exposure would’ve been buried by everybody starting with the gatekeepers all the way up to the CEO of the brothel. And this piece would’ve never been written. That the media crossed all limits was provedRead More

Disclaimer: This piece is going to piss off a lot of people. I mean no offence but if you do take offence, I consider it a deed well done. One of the defining sentences in the various analyses of post-Independence Hindu revivalism, which is also original is this: Hindus have been playing the game by the rules set by their enemies. [Ed: Paraphrased] Elst wrote this in his masterful Decolonizing the Hindu Mind in 2001. More than a decade ago. As we see, very little has changed since then. IfRead More

Note: These are excerpts from D.V. Gundappa’s Kannada book entitled Vrutta Patrike (Newspaper) first published in 1928 then reprinted a few times. The book is a collection of essays derived from D.V. Gundappa’s speeches and writings roughly beginning in 1928. My translation uses the enlarged edition published in 1968, which is the one available today. The excerpt published in this piece is from an essay titled Vicharave pracharave? (Disquisition or Publicity?) Any translation error is mine. Journalistic writings of the past were mostly intellectual in nature. An editor typically usedRead More

There used to be a time not too long ago when the most charitable thing that the media said about Modi went something like this: “Narendra Modi is no stranger to controversy.” The story of how that narrative changed after the courts exonerated him in the riots cases and with how the Gujarat economic juggernaut kept rolling doesn’t need repetition. Today, no matter how hard the media tries, it simply cannot find a single thread to bash Modi, even the flimsiest, which it can expand, elongate and editorialize enough toRead More

A quick jotting before the thought is lost. What I had kinda predicted when the Anna Circus had erupted is slowly coming true. Most of the “leading jokers lights” in the circus are now beginning to chant the “my clown is funnier than yours” mantra. Which is why I had warned that this isn’t the way to fight/check corruption. Recall this dialogue from Chanakya—perhaps the best made TV serial to ever grace Indian television—where Indradutt, the Prime Minister of King Parvateshwar says the following about Kautilya (not verbatim) : wohRead More

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this article are real. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is completely intentional. Real names of real people and real organizations have been suitably modified as occasioned by the demands of the article. Preface: B Raman loses the plot completely right from the first word. No, make that “right from the first number.” He commits the unpardonable error of mentioning Barkha’s age: 39. Yes. That’s in Years. Therefore the good editors at the Sri Lanka Guardian approached me to rewrite the Barkhanama originallyRead More

It couldn’t get any worse for the vile galaxy that comprises the media, intelligentsia, academia and the usual gang of Gujarat Cottage Industry freebooters. Let’s call it the media in short because it’s the media that gleefully opens its legs pages and studios and helps spread the poison. The Supreme Court today has delivered them a body blow by exonerating the object of their collective hatred. The Supreme Court today directed a Gujarat trial court to examine the report of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the amicus curae’s reviewRead More

Here’s a quick and dirty explanation of the so-called India Against Corruption (IAC) movement. Draw your own conclusions. Click the thumbnails to view the full-size image. Picture 1: Rough timeline of major events surrounding the IAC movement Picture 2: How the IAC’s demands were met (with inputs from a friend over email)Read More

We live in an India that continues to follow Nehru’s folicies1. His folicies might have resulted in some good but has resulted in Brobdingnagian blunders, which has led to the mess we’re mired in. As a result, at the end of 60-plus years, we have more things to hate than things to love about the Nightmarish Nehruvian India. I hope to make this a regular feature published around this time every month but let’s see how it goes. It doesn’t hurt to begin though. You’re free to add your ownRead More

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Stumbled upon this gem of a verse from Bhartruhari’s Nitishataka yesterday. Very compelling and relevant for all times. Rough translation is mine. Boddharo matsaragrastaah prabhavaah smayadooshitaah| Abodhaapahataschaanye jeernamange subhashitam|| Consumed with jealousy are the teachers and scholars, repositories of knowledge

Introduction JK concludes his excellent post with some serious humour: So I am not sure if this research is of the Ganesha phallus quality. If you have seen any paper or book by anyone else, please leave a comment. [Ed:

The JNU high priests must have cursed the moment they decided to invite Umberto Eco to speak. Says this report: Celebrated Italian author Umberto Eco left many academics and students at Jawaharlal Nehru University squirming with embarrassed ignorance on Monday.

How often have you heard this refrain or its variants: Naah! I don’t go to temples. I don’t like going to temples…I mean, there’s no point…all that noise, meaningless mantras and rituals…some are so unhygienic…I believe in God but I’m

Do Indians have a sense of history? No is pretty much the received wisdom even today in major sections of the academia, media and the rest. If you as much as question the sources, the roots of this received wisdom,

Svaayattamekaantagunam Vidhaatraa| Vinirmitam Chhaadanamagnataayaah|| Visheshatah Sarvavidaam Samaaje| Vibhooshanam Mounamapanditaanaam|| Verily has (Lord) Brahma provided The most powerful weapon to use as one pleases; An ornament of the Ignorant, Silence adorns the Illiterate in the company of the Erudite. (As a

Head over to Cynical Nerd’s amazing (new) post that savagely rips apart the Indo-US nuclear deal. We argue that the draft legislation is intended to secure United States strategic objectives in South Asia. These do not coincide with Indian security

Read Field Notes 1 and 2. In the first part, I mentioned that monuments “represent vibrant showcases of the deep commitment, which a nation displays in preserving the memory of people and places these nations have much to be proud

Shakyo Vaaraitum Jalena Hutabhukhchhatrena Sooryaataapo| Naagendronishitaankushenasamadodandena Gogardabhau|| Vyaadhirbheshajasamgrahaisccha Vividhairmantraprayogairvisham Sarvasya| Aushadhamasti Shaastravihitam Moorkhasya Naasti Aushadham|| One can put out fire dousing it with water, Ward off the scorching sun with an umbrella, Tame a rutted elephant goading it with a

Several months have passed since I published anything on the venerable Bhartruhari. In this installment, I present one of my all-time favourites from Neeti Shataka. Nindantu neeti nipunah yadi vaa stunvantu | Lakshmiih samaavishatu gacchatu vaa yatheshtam || Adya eva

First, credit where it is due: sincere thanks to my all-knowing Twitter friends Gopi and Ranganaathan for bringing this to my attention. Preface A certain Father Dominic Emmanuel seems to have taken it upon himself to educate the Honourable Justices